New media tools bring Mozambican crisis to the world

This week's deadly unrest in Mozambique became a global news
story in part because reporters and citizen journalists used new media and
social networking tools. Clashes between security forces and people protesting rising
prices in the capital, Maputo, left at least seven people dead and more than
200 people injured, according to the latest news
reports.

As the streets exploded with violence, one Maputo resident (@BarataJorge)
observed that few local broadcasters were relaying information. "Demonstrations
in Maputo.
Radio Mozambique,
just music, TV pass math class. News just in RTP Africa and STV." Paul Fauvet, English service editor
of Mozambique's state news agency AIM,
shared in an e-mail that the unrest disrupted the operations of some print
media outlets. "The riots did close down the independent faxed daily Mediafax, which has not appeared for the
last two days, because key people in the distribution were unable to reach the
office. The daily paper Noticiasappeared
in its online version, but could not be distributed on the streets," he wrote. Jornal a Verdade,
a free weekly newspaper in Maputo overcame the logistical problems by
using its website and Facebook fan page to post dozens
of articles and videos in Portuguese. The paper's
editor, Erik Charas, was
one of the first journalists to disseminate news of the crisis in English, helping
to turn this local event into an international news story. Charas integrated an
Ushahidi crisis reporting tool
on the paper's website and used his tweeter feed (@echaras) to post updates, crafting
an English hashtag: #maputoriots.

There were also non-Mozambicans tweeting
their experiences from the ground or commenting on the news. One international
observer closely following the Maputo twitterers (@giantpandinha,
self-described as working "in intl devt hack-dom"), tweeted links to video footage of the riots and commented that "this
video is hard to believe: man shooting at rioters on the street below, from
office [of] the ruling party in #Maputo."
When Maputo Twitterers and Portugal-based Jornal
Noticias reported SMS messages were urging civil disobedience, @giantpandinhacontrasted the wide use of SMS in Mozambique to the ban
on messaging during anti-government protests in Ethiopia in 2005. "Meles
ended SMS during the crisis in Addis in 2005, at least residents of Maputo still have to
communicate via SMS." Reporting from the streets of Maputo, South African
journalist Nastasya Tay,used her
Twitter feed toconvey
the perils and moment-to-moment uncertainty of unfolding chaos across the city.
"Armoured trucks patrolling the street and shooting
at unarmed crowds. Phone stolen in riot so belated tweets," she wrote. Then, a
few hours later, she added: "Windy morning in Maputo. The sound of an
unexpected lone trumpeter rings out over the city. What does today hold?"

As more tweets appeared in
English, more international news media outlets began to express interest in the
Maputo Twitterers. On Thursday, for instance, @JorgeBarata received a tweet
from freelance journalist Amandine Schmitt on behalf of the Observers
news blog of broadcaster France 24. "Hello, how can
we contact you to talk about Maputo riots? Please come back to us," Schmitt
wrote. Similarly, Chiaras received a tweet from Faith
Karimi, a CNN International Wire news desk editor (@FaithCNN): "Are you in Maputo? Can you DM a phone. contact I can reach
you for a story?"

Early this morning, Charas sounded the end of the
riots. "After a 3hour round I can report that #maputoriots
are no more. All roads are accessible, not blocked & no signs of trouble
anywhere."

As noted
by Global Voices blogger Lova
Rakotolomalala, who reported on the unrest in Madagascar in 2009, accuracy and
context are often missing from citizen reporting in times of crises. This view
was reiterated by @giantpandinha, who wrote "Tweet and rumor equal."
Nevertheless, the same user encouraged Mozambicans to tweet in many languages
using the hashtag #Maputo. He added: "The world cares about you, Mozambique."

Mohamed Keita is advocacy coordinator for CPJ's Africa Program. Keita has written about independent journalism and development in sub-Saharan Africa for publications including The New York Times and Africa Review, and has appeared on NPR, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and Radio France Internationale. Keita has also given presentations on press freedom at the World Bank, U.S. State Department, and universities. Follow him on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ.

Thank you so much for this insightful article! Being a Mozambican living in Maputo, I would also like to add a comment about Facebook, which was not specifically referred in the article.
Facebook played a very important role in disseminating accurate information about the riots that started on September 1st in Maputo. While I was watching what was happening in two local TV broadcasters, through Facebook I was being updated virtually by the second by people who were located in various parts of town. At the same time, I knew exactly what was going on in 7 or 8 streets of Maputo. Journalists cannot do this. At least not in Mozambique.
People turned to Facebook to know which road they should use to pick up their kids from school when the riots started, or to return home safely. Or to assess whether or not it was safe to go to work on the second day of social unrest in Maputo.
The downside of this citizen reporting is that its potential is sometimes used incorrectly, to spread unfounded rumors that increase panic. As with everything else on the Web, it reminds us that every bit of information needs to be filtered first, and that formal, reliable sources of information are absolutely necessary, I think.
Regards,
Maura Quatorze

Hi Keita,
Excellent job,
This is what we are living in Mozambique, and this seems to be the crise of a total failed government in achieving their promises, but above everything this is what happen when we dont have prepared people to talk to the population, to manage and negociate conflits.
This proved to us that people in Mozambique are taking conscience of their rights and obligations.
It is really bad when we have violence, but I tell you that by this time we have watched 3 sorts of violence:
- Manifestants violence because of the increase of life cost;
- But above everthing, Verbal violence: in the voice of some governants;
- And Police violence - the arm governants chose to lead with their people.

Hi Keita,
keep up the good job,
This a well resourced and referenced treatise than just an article.Though, i am a bit far and less aware of the secnario(but the food price riot) of/in Mozambique , the piece painted it well.
My most interest in this writing is on the role of citizen journalism.Though,it sometimes becomes hard to delinate the difference between citizen and social media-understanding the value and distinctiveness of citizen reporting, i see the future of journalism fully changing.This new genre of media has to be well researched and CPJ has to see ways of promoting it in Africa.